The RG Heidelberg (, literally "Heidelberg Rowing Club") is a German rugby union club from Heidelberg, currently playing in the Rugby-Bundesliga. Apart from rugby, the club also offers the sport of rowing.
History The club was formed on 4 June 1898 as a rowing club. Out of necessity to have an alternative sport in winter, frozen rivers made rowing naturally impossible, the rugby department of the club was formed in 1919.RG Heidelberg website History, accessed: 12 January 2009
The RGH was the third rugby club to be formed in Heidelberg, after the Heidelberger RK and the SC Neuenheim, making it easy for the new team to find opposition to play against. The SC 1880 Frankfurt and the rugby department of the VfB Stuttgart were also teams the club played in its early years.
Due to many South Africans who were studying in Heidelberg, the club developed a good relationship with Dutch teams and eventually, the Dutch national colours, orange, became RGH's team colours, which they still are today.RG Heidelberg website History, accessed: 12 January 2009
In 1930, the club played in its first German rugby union championship final but lost to SV Odin Hannover 0-13. In 1932, 1933, 1937 and 1938 the RGH made four more losing appearances in the German championship final.
In 1959, the club appeared in another final, losing once more but in 1967 it finally won its first national title, winning the German rugby union cup. After another finals defeat in 1970 and the introduction of the Rugby-Bundesliga in 1971, the club formed its very successful youth department in 1972.
In 1980, the team finally won its first German title, followed by another three in 1997, 2006 and 2007. The 2006 final, the 86th in the competition's history, produced a novelty in the history of the game in Germany, with RGH and SC Neuenheim two clubs from Heidelberg competed for the title, for the first time. It was also the first time that no club from Hannover stood in the final.
In 1996, the club moved to its current home ground, the Fritz-Grunebaum-Sportpark.
While the club managed to upset SC 1880 Frankfurt in the 2007 German final, a repeat in the following season was not possible and the favorites from Frankfurt took out the title that year. After this, the club was unable to advance past the semi-final stage of the German championship.
On 22 August 2011, five days before the start of the season, the club withdrew its reserve team from the 2nd Rugby-Bundesliga South/West, citing inability to guarantee a full player squad for the whole season.RG Heidelberg zieht Reserveteam aus der 2. Bundesliga Süd zurück totlarugby.de, published: 22 August 2011, accessed: 29 August 2011 Shortly after, the club announced that the team would instead compete in the tier-three 3rd Liga South/West in 2011-12.RG Heidelberg II startet in der 3. Liga Süd-West totlarugby.de, published: 1 September 2011, accessed: 3 September 2011
RGH finished first in their group in the 2012-13 season and qualified for the south/west division of the championship round, where it also came first. The club advanced to the semi-finals of the play-offs where it was knocked out by SC Neuenheim, losing 18–32. In 2013–14 the team qualified for the championship and the play-offs once more, defeating TSV Victoria Linden 101–10 in the first round and losing to Berliner Rugby Club in the quarter-finals.
In the 2014–15 season the club finished fourth in the south-west championship group and was knocked out by Heidelberger RK in the semi-finals of the play-offs after victories over FC St. Pauli Rugby and RK 03 Berlin.
RG Heidelberg was the only club to have belonged to the Rugby-Bundesliga in every season since its interception.
On 20 July 2017, Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge took the role of coxswains to race using RG Heidelberg boats from the Old Bridge in Heidelberg and the Theodor-Heuss Bridge (de).
Club honours Source:
German rugby union championship Champions: 1980, 1997, 2006, 2007 Runners up: 1930, 1932, 1933, 1937, 1938, 1959, 1970, 1982, 1983, 1996, 1999, 2008 German rugby union cup Winner: 1967, 1986, 1995, 1997, 2004 Runners up: 1974, 1975, 1977, 1980, 1982, 1990, 1996, 2006, 2007, 2008 German sevens championship Champions: 1997, 1998, 1999, 2003, 2005, 2008, 2009, 2015, 2016 Runners up: 1996, 2000, 2004, 2007, 2011
Recent seasons Recent seasons of the club:RugbyWeb Ergebnisarchiv rugbyweb.de - Results archive, accessed: 24 July 2012
Men: First team Year Division Position 1997-98 Rugby-Bundesliga (I) 5th 1998-99 Rugby-Bundesliga South/West 3rd Bundesliga championship round 2nd 1999–2000 Rugby-Bundesliga South/West 3rd Bundesliga championship round 5th 2000-01 Rugby-Bundesliga South/West 3rd Bundesliga championship round 3rd 2001-02 Rugby-Bundesliga 2nd 2002-03 Rugby-Bundesliga 4th 2003-04 Rugby-Bundesliga 3rd 2004-05 Rugby-Bundesliga 3rd 2005-06 Rugby-Bundesliga 1st — Champions 2006-07 Rugby-Bundesliga 2nd — Champions 2007-08 Rugby-Bundesliga 2nd — Runners up 2008-09 Rugby-Bundesliga 5th 2009–10 Rugby-Bundesliga 2nd — Semi-finals 2010–11 Rugby-Bundesliga 4th — Semi-finals 2011–12 Rugby-Bundesliga 6th 2012–13 Rugby-Bundesliga qualification round – South 3rd Rugby-Bundesliga championship round – South-West 3rd — Semi-finals 2013–14 Rugby-Bundesliga qualification round – South 4th Rugby-Bundesliga championship round – South-West 4th — Quarter-finals 2014–15 Rugby-Bundesliga qualification round – South 3rd Rugby-Bundesliga championship round – South-West 4th — Semi-finals 2015–16 Rugby-Bundesliga South-West 3rd Until 2001, when the single-division Bundesliga was established, the season was divided in autumn and spring, a Vorrunde and Endrunde, whereby the top teams of the Rugby-Bundesliga would play out the championship while the bottom teams together with the autumn 2nd Bundesliga champion would play for Bundesliga qualification. The remainder of the 2nd Bundesliga teams would play a spring round to determine the relegated clubs. Where two placing's are shown, the first is autumn, the second spring. In 2012 the Bundesliga was expanded from ten to 24 teams and the 2nd Bundesliga from 20 to 24 with the leagues divided into four regional divisions.
Men: Reserve team Year Division Position 2001-02 Rugby-Regionalliga (III) 3rd 2002-03 Rugby-Regionalliga 2nd 2003-04 Rugby-Regionalliga 1st — Promoted 2004-05 2nd Rugby-Bundesliga South/West (II) 5th 2005-06 2nd Rugby-Bundesliga South/West 6th 2006-07 2nd Rugby-Bundesliga South/West 7th 2007–08 2nd Rugby-Bundesliga South/West 8th 2008–09 2nd Rugby-Bundesliga South/West 3rd 2009–10 2nd Rugby-Bundesliga South/West 4th 2010–11 2nd Rugby-Bundesliga South/West 8th — Withdrawn 2011–12 3rd Liga South/West - South (III) 2nd 2012–13 3rd Liga South/West - West 2nd — Semi-finals 2013–14 3rd Liga South/West – South 5th — Withdrawn 2014–15 3rd Liga South/West 3rd 2015–16 3rd Liga South/West—South 1st
Rugby internationals
Mathias Entenmann, a lock and back rower, played 26 times for his country.
The former England international Phil Christophers who made his debut in 2002 started his rugby career with RG Heidelberg, being the son of a German mother and English father.Christophers gets England call from Woodward The Times online, published: 20 November 2002, accessed: 12 January 2009
In Germany's 2006–08 European Nations Cup campaign, Mustafa Güngör, Christopher Weselek, Edmoore Takaendesa, Tim Coly, Manuel Wilhelm, Sebastian Werle, Kehoma Brenner, Tim Kasten and Steffen Thier were called up for the national team while being on the club's roster.
In the 2008–10 campaign, Güngör, Weselek, Takaendesa, Coly, Wilhelm and Brenner all appeared for the RGH and Germany again, while Pierre Faber and Fabian Heimpel were new additions to the club's list of internationals.
In the 2010–12 campaign, Manuel Wilhelm, Mustafa Güngör, Tim Coly and Fabian Heimpel were re-selected for Germany, with Güngör leaving RGH at the end of the 2010-11 season,TotalRugby Wechselbörse 2011/2012 totalrugby.de, accessed: 21 August 2011 while Bastian Himmer was a new selection.
For the opening match of the 2012–14 edition of the ENC against Ukraine the club had only Manuel Wilhelm selected for the team.DRV XV: Kader für EM-Auftakt gegen Ukraine fast komplett totalrugby.de, published: 16 October 2012, accessed: 17 October 2012
The club had six players selected for the German under-18 team at the 2009 European Under-18 Rugby Union Championship, these being Elmar Heimpel, Nicolas Kurzer, Bastian Himmer, Robert Hittel, Luis Becker and Raffael Ruck .U18-EM: Deutschland feiert klaren Auftaktsieg Rugby-Journal - 2009 squad, published: 4 April 2009, accessed: 30 April 2010 Of these, Elmar Heimpel, Luis Becker and Robert Hittel also played at the 2010 tournament, as did Nicolas Kurzer, who was then with the Heidelberger TV.U18 in Bestbesetzung zur EM nach Italien totalrugby.de, published: 23 March 2010, accessed: 30 April 2010
With Marvin Dieckmann, Robert Haase, Fabian Heimpel, Bastian Himmer, Tim Lichtenberg, Robin Plümpe as well as Johannes and Simon Schreieck, the club currently has 8 players in the German national Rugby 7s squad. Dieckmann also made his international debut in XV Rugby for Germany in his sides´24-21 win over Uruguay in November 2016.
Coaches Recent coaches of the club: Name Period Rudolf Finsterer 2002–2008 Thomas Kurzer 2008–2009 Rudolf Finsterer 2009–2011 Jamie Houston 2011-2012 Bernd Schöpfel 2012-2013 Christopher Weselek 2013 -2016 Rudolf Finsterer 2016 -2017 Jeff Tigere 2017 - 2025
References
External links Official website RG Heidelberg team info at totalrugby.de Tables and results of the German rugby union leagues